Jump to content
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

Otto von Ballpark

Community Leader
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    20,620

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    74

 Content Type 

Profiles

News

Tutorials & Help

Videos

2023 Twins Top Prospects Ranking

2022 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

Free Agent & Trade Rumors

Guides & Resources

Minnesota Twins Players Project

Forums

Blogs

Events

Store

Downloads

Gallery

Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    I'd be real tempted if there were fewer question marks around Lucroy, and a 110 OPS+ would be close enough to his previous level to remove a lot of question marks...
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    By "extension" I assume you could extend Lucroy before he reaches free agency. His contract is very team-friendly now, I wouldn't be surprised if was willing to rip it up and extend it a few years like Phil Hughes did.
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    The Eddie Guardado reunion in 2008 didn't go so well, although admittedly it didn't cost much (Mark Hamburger).
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    Well, they did give up their starting CF (Austin Jackson, who has since struggled), plus 4.5 years of perhaps a lefty Trevor May type (Drew Smyly), plus an 18 year old, top 100 SS prospect (Willy Adames). Although they did get 1.5 years of David Price in return, including the ability to trade him again or get a compensation draft pick.
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    I am not sure what counts as "legitimate prospects" but it is quite possible to trade for bullpen help without pulling a Ramos-for-Capps. Jon Rauch was an excellent bullpen acquisition, as was Brian Fuentes. Even Todd Jones back in 2001 wasn't bad, although he was too little, too late.
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    My bad, it was from another reliever-related thread...
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    Achter is better than O'Rourke against lefties? Maybe in BABIP but I might trust K rate to translate a little better to MLB. Career wise, O'Rourke has double Achter's K rate vs. LHB, plus slightly lower BB and HR rates.
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    The original context was someone else suggesting Rogers needs to continue starting because he's our #5 next year. Berrios was just an example of another option, but your post listed many more options. And of course Rogers can return to starting next year if necessary.
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    Achter isn't particularly dominant against either side, though. If you are going to carry 12 or 13 pitchers, you should have room for a good lefty specialist. (And if everybody is carrying that many pitchers, there aren't many pinch-hitting options on the bench, so your specialist will get to face some LHB, or at least force a manager into a questionable substitution.) A bullpen needs a generic righty or two, but you don't need 3-4 of them.
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    O'Rourke certainly brings the K's versus LHB: http://minorleaguecentral.com/player?pid=594951&split=3000&type=pitcher But while Rogers has a lower K rate versus LHB, he does have a higher ground ball rate and lower BB and HR rates: http://minorleaguecentral.com/player?pid=573124&split=3000&type=pitcher Probably room to give them both a shot. (Do we really need all 3 of Nunez, Santana, and Escobar right now? Hey, just noticed that Escobar is now listed under "Outfielders" at the Twins site, hooray...)
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    Pat Dean is valuable? He's a 26 year old LHP with zero MLB experience and a career 5.4 K/9 in the minors. I would think every team in the league has multiple Pat Dean in their organization. And what benefit would they gain by trading for one? Have there been any trades of that level of player for international bonus money? Here's one I found, but for a 22 year old pitcher: http://www.camdenchat.com/2015/5/18/8622599/orioles-news-chris-lee-trade-international-bonus-slots Here's another one for 22 and 23 year olds from 2 years ago: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2013/07/angels-acquire-minor-leaguers-from-mets-for-international-money.html
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    There's a lot more than those 3. Victor Martinez, Jim Thome (later career), and Travis Hafner were all successful recent full-time DH's in our division. Later career Frank Thomas too. Chili Davis. Harold Baines is a DH legend. Rafael Palmeiro even won a Gold Glove one year while DH'ing.
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    Ryan is still only 26 years old, just two years old than Jason. I doubt he's looking to retire. And his recent performances have been questionable enough that I doubt he would ask for his release because of his brother.
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    That tiny sample isn't particularly meaningful, either way. Discount his debut and his last game (where he was apparently battling the thumb injury) and the OPS climbs to .635 and the K rate drops to 29%. Obviously, he's no star at the plate yet, and he may not even be ready to hold his own at the plate in MLB, but 39 PA's is probably too little to really conclude that, for a player with his track record and pedigree.
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    I actually wouldn't want him taking 2 months off from 3B completely right now -- but he wouldn't have to. He could get at least 1-2 starts a week at 3B, and more if/when Plouffe gets dinged up (or Mauer, with Plouffe sliding over to 1B). And if he's lost at the plate, send him back down to AAA where he can play 3B every day again.
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    Jay would have to be pretty incredible for me to call him up this season. Chris Sale in 2010 had 15 K's in 6.1 IP at AAA and got called up August 6th, I am thinking near that level of incredible, with us still in the race at that point too. If he takes longer to get going or posts good but more sane minor league numbers (like Finnegan last year), or we fade in July, I'm not sure there's enough potential benefit opportunities in a month's relief work to offset losing the 40-man roster spot this winter. Even Finnegan was basically a non-factor for the Royals until an elimination game went extra innings. (Jay could obviously fill a bigger role in our pen, but I'm not going to push him into it -- he's going to have to definitively claim it.)
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    Thanks for that info Jeremy. I hadn't thought about how that usage would affect scouts. Relief aces are certainly nice to have, but you just can't predict if/when you will even need them, especially at levels of competition lower than MLB where there seems to be more uncertainty in projections. (Ultimately Illinois did not benefit much from having a relief ace, and in fact had to switch him to starter with their season on the line anyway.) If he really was good enough to dominate as a starter, they almost certainly would have been better off working him into that role as early as his sophomore season (which seems not uncommon for college pitchers).
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    That was discussed in the original draft thread (hidden in the draft forum): http://twinsdaily.com/topic/18552-article-twins-select-tyler-jay-sixth-overall/ In summary, there were some other good starters on the team, and apparently the manager liked the flexibility of using Jay in relief. Personally, I think the team and player got comfortable with the situation early in his college career, and the team didn't really have time to try to develop him as a starter (imagine if the Twins were guaranteed to lose him to another league in another year or two, they probably don't mess with his role either).
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    Also, what's up with KC's plan for Finnegan this year? He's already moved between levels six times, with only a couple brief forays into starting in the minors but mostly low-leverage MLB relief work (his .6 leverage index matching Stauffer's). I think Finnegan may have been more ticketed for the bullpen from the get-go than originally assumed (he was only the 17th pick, with a signing bonus of barely half Jay's). Or the contending Royals have been too tempted by having him available on the 40-man roster? Either way, not ideal outcomes for Jay and the Twins. Not that I think Jay to MLB is particularly likely this season anyway...
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    It should be noted that Finnegan's regular season numbers were good, but he pitched almost exclusively in Royals losses. He got only one hold in 7 games (pitching the 7th inning of a 2-run win), but also picked up a loss (allowing the tying and go-ahead runs to score in another appearance). In the postseason, he first made a name for himself in the wild card game, but he only came in to pitch when the game was already in extra innings after Oakland blew a big lead. His other key appearance was in ALDS game 2 where he pitched the 10th inning. After that, he was often more of a liability than an asset in the ALCS and World Series. Finnegan was way down the KC bullpen depth chart, well-protected by other relievers and only deployed under special circumstances (extra inning postseason games). The Twins as currently constructed would almost certainly be counting on Jay as primary option in the regular season, so he could be more quickly exposed before we even get to the unlikely point of postseason extra inning games where Finnegan made his mark.
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    That's true, it would be no trouble to GET Jay on the 40-man roster, but there is no doubt he would likely block other prospects there this winter, and for dubious benefit.
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    There are 3 NL shortstops with OPS's over .800 this year. Correa and Lowrie are also over .800 but don't yet qualify. Also, you make it sound like it's easy to post that kind of OPS. Iglesias is achieving it with a .358 BABIP and tiny 9.1 K%, Boegarts with a .330 BABIP, .113 ISO, and solid 13.6 K%. (And the Red Sox hope Bogaerts will improve.) At this point, one year into his pro career, Gordon hitting numbers like that is still almost entirely projection. (Note that at Gordon's age, Boegarts was posting an .896 OPS across high-A and AA.) Not to mention, if .700-.750 OPS ends up as his "peak" ability, his offensive performance may veer close to .600 some years too (i.e. Alcides Escobar, Elvis Andrus).
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    Yeah, nobody's asking him to try to be the next A-Rod, or start training with Sano. But at this point, I'm not ready to settle for a banjo bat, banking on projected defense. If he doesn't start consistently limiting his K's and posting high BABIPs like his brother (or Ben Revere), he should probably add some strength and tweak his swing for at least a little more ISO (.100 range) if he is capable, or he may not stick as a regular regardless of defense.
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    I must correct myself: Dee is listed only 1 inch shorter than Nick. Somehow misread Nick's height as 6'2" when he's actually listed at 6' even. (Tom Gordon was only 5'9" so I suspect Nick won't get taller.)
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    Hard to say about Gardenhire. I don't think he had many good young players (or good players, period) to work with from 2011-2014. The pitching coach is a definitely a stronger factor.
×
×
  • Create New...